So I recently turned 30 and have been dealing with anxiety for over 15 years now and have had a good handle on it for last 10 or so. But over the past year I have been getting more and more anxiety on getting ill primarily getting cancer or having a stroke. Most of which is due to a few friends having strokes in 20's/30's and a loss of my step fathers brother to cancer in his 30's. I have been obsessed in fear something is wrong. I go to dr and my blood counts are normal etc but over last few days I have had stomach issues and and have been constantly looking at stool and urine as I go and thinking something is wrong or there was a change in color as started reviewing symptoms and I see possible colon cancer or pancreatic cancer show up. Although when I am calm I believe I am fine but honestly keep thinking what if and have had panic ever since. I understand as I have no family history of cancer I shouldn't be worried like this. But the thought of what if keeps coming to my head. I also have 2 young children as did my step fathers brother when he passed and thinking about leaving them and not being around has also caused a lot of fear and worry.

Hello- I know what it is like to have such fears. Constantly thinking about it, obsessing really about your health. I have what I consider to be called health anxiety. I am a nurse 35 yr old nurse practitioner (or soon to be one) with one young son. Gosh I want to be around forever for him because i love him so much. I lost my dad to pancreatic cancer when I was 27 years old. It was so totally traumatic, that loss of control you feel when there is nothing you can do but watch someone you love pass away from such a horrible disease. When I was a homecare nurse I took care of a couple of patients with terminal cancer. That was truly hard for me as well to cope with. Last summer I felt an enlarged lymph node behind my ear. It disrupted my whole life. It put me in such a state of frenzy that I insisted it be biopsied. Results came back normal. All along I had another small lymph node underneath the one I had removed. For the past year, yes I knew it was there but it didn't bother me. Then while driving the other day I started poking it, and it became a bit more firm. I went to an urgent care doc, who told me i was fine. Then I went to my own doctor who said it was fine. He took labs (CBC/ESR) from me, which came back normal. Yet here I am going to see HEENT on friday for a check. I am trying though to stay positive through working out, yoga, church, medication, and counseling. But darn!! I was doing so well until last week. Now panic is back, waking up at night is back, sadness is back. Over a small, lymph node……….UGH!!!!! What I can control I do….I don't smoke, rarely drink alcohol, exercise daily, and eat healthy. What works for you? Any strategies to share to rein the anxiety in?

Welcome to the forum I am pleased you have found us you will get good support here.

Sorry to hear you have been having these symptoms it does sound to me like you are suffering with health anxiety which a lot of us here myself included suffer with. Health anxiety can really take over your life if you let it so it's important to do something about it.

It is good news that you have had tests done which have come back normal now you need to do the hard part which is believe in those results and stop looking for symptoms.

The good news is lots can be done to help with talking therapy such as CBT being the best method of getting on top of your anxiety and getting it back under control. I would speak to your doctor about how you are feeling and see what they suggest.

In the meantime have a look at our resources thread for some useful links and what ever you do don't start goggling your symptoms as that will only make your anxiety a lot worse.

Keep us posted.

HibeeI try not to worry about the future -- so I take each day just one anxiety attack at a time.

Welcome to the Healing Well anxiety forum, I'm happy you found us but sorry to hear you are suffering from Health Anxiety. This is an awesome community that cares and above all else understands what it is like to live with anxiety, so stick around and we will walk this journey with you if you'd like us too.

As Hibee said, alot can be done for HA such as CBT therapy, so I recommend you seeing a therapist to start some CBT. Have you ever been in therapy for your anxiety before? It really does help.

I also agree with Hibee that you need to trust your test results and start believing that you are fine, I know that is hard to do, but you've had a ton of test and they all came back normal, the chances of you having a stroke or cancer at your age are very slim.

Here are some links for HA taken from our resources, please look at the resources thread for more helpful links.

Thank you all. It is very helpful especially when many ppl don't know how to handle the anxiety we have to have a place to talk. It's crazy how our mind can make us feel certain things and think certain things.

Hi there I too have been suffering from health anxiety for a long tine. I have a one year old daughter and am so scared something will happen to me and I wont be around for her. I hate being so anxious about any little thing. I get a headache i think its a tumor the slightest twinge in my chest is a heart attack. I started getting pins and needles in my hands and feet and was convinced I had MS. I do my best to calm myself do deep breathing but once my fear gets hold it takes a lot for me to believe I'm okay. Writing my feelings here & seeing other people with the same feelings helps 😊

Hello everyone, so im a 22 year old male, been reading anxiety forums for quite some time now. Until now i had the courage and something hit me to sign up and make an account so i can talk to some people who struggle through what i am. I guess i would consider myself a hypochondriac, as im always scared of primarily getting a Heart attack or Cancer. My anxiety has been really scary lately as ive been thinking about the end of the world. So im constantly thinking about getting a heart attack or an cancer or any deadly disease, about a week ago i got bit by mosquitoes and thought it was gonna spread all over my body and that ill br judged by people. Although in my inner mind i know that would never happen. My weights been a great concern anytime i loose a couple of pounds i think im gonna be super skinny or have colon cancer i used to notice blood in my stool went and got that checked with a gastroenterologist and told me it was just hemroids and that nothing serious is going on i still worry it could be colon cancer because of the blood i periodically notice and the small loss of weight, been to ER about once ever couple of months with left arm pain chest pain heavy breathing high blood pressure they run ECG blood work chest x-rays and results always come back normal but i always convince myself if I dont go it could be a heart attack and if i dont go i could die. This life is very tiring and hard to go by day to day. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Hey man. I have been dealing with the same since I was young and currently have same fear of colon cancer due to stomach pain and perceived change in stool color. 2 weeks ago was afraid I was having a stroke some days are hard others are not. I tell myself go find a place of comfort as we all know our minds can play tricks on us and make us feel things be we are scared. I try to tell myself life is to short to worry but it is hard. Surround urself with a good core group of ppl who r supportive and understand and do things to take ur mind off of it. It may not always work but can sometimes help. I play video games or watch sports or spend time with my kids

Hi there, I know its very debilitating to feel that way, I too suffer from anxiety ..it just came back and I ve dealt with it for about 5 years... posting here helps so much since we can talk and everybody understands each other.

Welcome Life-99 I'm happy you decided to join us here, this is a great community that cares and understands anxiety. I'm sorry you are suffering from Health anxiety, many of our members also have HA including myself so you are not alone.

Please take a look at the links I posted in a couple of posts above yours for some self help links on HA.

Please post with us anything, if you so choose too make a post of your own by clicking the New Post Button on the upper left, that way more people will see it and be able to welcome you, by posting in a existing thread alot of people will miss your post.

Please post with us anytime, we will walk this journey with you if you'd like us too.*******************************************************Anxiety and Panic Moderator

Hi J.Griff, Cln777, and Angel Lisa. Thank you all for such amazing support, ya health anxiety is a tough one to work with, ever since i was you like when i was 14 it wasn't that that bad, wish i could go back because i never used to let anything concern to loosing weight, no colon issue, etc. I guess part of my heakth anxiety stems from fear of dying, which is understandable and my parebts played big role in making me fear unnecessary things as they were raising me. One thing i noticed about Anxiety in general is some days are easier than the other but the hardest part is not letting it get to you when it attacks, i was on train about a month ago to go shopping in a different city the moment we left off i started having chest pains very fast palpitations nausea, i guess that was because i was leaving the city i was born and raised in and thought if anything happens to me i won't be able to get help The train had to stop at the next stop and i taxid back to my city, but as i was in the taxi on the way back i could feel the symptoms getting better slower heart beats etc. Less nausea, so right there and then i knew its all in my mind. The key in coping with your anxiety is having knowledge on what sets it off.

This morning for me was a bit difficult have been good since Monday morning. Now fear is back, i a relative of my step father pass away from pancreatic cancer and had 2 young children like myself now I am worried I may have colon cancer and now I have stomach pains and am leading myself to believe things that are normal like passing stool and gs are bad when in actuality seem normal. It's an up and down struggle I understand but good to have a place to vent.

Hello all, I have been reading this forum for the last few years and finally decided to join. I have been dealing with anxiety and panic disorder /attacks for years. After my military career in the ARMY, I had panic attacks nearly every day combined with nausea and migraines. It consumed my life. I was afraid to go out to lunch or in public with my family and friends because I was afraid of having another one. After about 1 year and some counseling I was able to get them under control without medication. Daily practices and lifestyle changes seemed to be effective. So effective that I had my 1st panic attack in almost 10 years this past February. Just like that all my years of practice was gone. I went to the E.R. one night because I thought that I was dying and I was having a panic attack. My heart rate was high, blood pressure 175/115 heart rate 125. I was given Ativan and I felt like a new person afterwards. The problem is now that ever since that night I have been having daily repeat panic attacks and I think that I am bringing them on by simply thinking about not wanting to have one. I am now starting to have daily tingling in my left arm. Over and over again I continue to get more blood tests done and E.K.G's and everything is coming back normal. The ativan works great but now I am afraid of an addiction I am at the point now where I am starting to feel hopeless about ever being able to control these panic attacks again. There are so many more symptoms to deal with this time. If anyone has any recommendations I would love to hear them. I'm almost afraid to leave my home unless absolutely necessary. I have missed nearly 2 months of work. I feel like anxiety is taking over my life.

Thank you so much for the warm welcome S.C. As you may know sometimes it can feel so alone when you are dealing with this......thanks for the guidance. I will look into the therapy and check out some of the resources. I really appreciate it. Finally I feel like there is a place where others understand this.

I too recommend you restarting therapy, CBT and Mindfulness therapies work wonders on anxiety.

Take a look at the top thread on the forum for our resources, there is a lot of helpful self help links there. :)

As far as getting addicted to your benzo, I doubt that will happen. First of all you are aware of addiction issues, secondly if you take them as prescribed it isn't likely you'll be addicted to them. You might become dependent on them but that is different then addiction. They were given to you for a reason, and I say why suffer if you don't need too.

Again, Welcome. Please consider making your own post, by clicking on the Post New Topic button on the upper left of the forum. That way more people will see it and be able to welcome you, by replying to an existing post a lot of people will miss it. :)*******************************************************Anxiety and Panic Moderator